The oxidation state of an atom, also called the oxidation number, is a numerical value that represents the charge an ion has or an atom appears to have when its electrons are counted based on a set of commonly accepted rules. The value (+ or -) of the oxidation state symbolizes the apparent charge for each atom in a chemically bonded molecule based on the distribution of the electrons in the molecule. For ionically bonded compounds, the oxidation state of an atom is equal to the ionic charge of the atom. The charge of an atom in an ionic compound represents the electron distribution of the compound. The oxidation state of an atom bound in a covalent compound is the average charge for the atom based on the electronegativity values for each atom involved in the molecule. In this case, the oxidation state is equal to the...